Short answer: To start a money transfer business in Australia, you need to enrol and register with AUSTRAC as a remittance service provider, and have that registration approved, before you take your first instruction. On launch day, your platform also has to identify customers, screen them, monitor transfers, prepare report data and keep records that prove all of it. Registration is AUSTRAC's decision and the compliance duties are yours. This guide covers the platform and operations side: what has to be working, and provable, when you go live.
RemitSo is white-label remittance software for licensed money transfer operators. We are a technology company, not a remitter, and nothing here is legal advice.
Who is a remitter in Australia?
AUSTRAC describes a remittance service provider as an individual, business or organisation that accepts instructions from customers to transfer money or property to a recipient. It registers providers in three categories:
- Independent remittance dealer. Uses its own products, platforms or systems, and carries its own obligations.
- Remittance network provider. Lets affiliates use its brand, products, platforms or systems, and takes on obligations for those affiliates.
- Affiliate. Provides the service under a network provider's arrangement.
AUSTRAC also describes an exception for transfers that are incidental to another service, with limits. Where your business fits is a question for your adviser and AUSTRAC's own guidance.
Your category shapes the platform. An independent dealer needs one set of controls under its own name. A network provider needs to see each affiliate's activity separately while running one compliance program across them all. Settle this before you choose a system.
Registration in brief
Remittance providers enrol and then apply for registration through AUSTRAC Online. AUSTRAC's registration page explains that it looks at your readiness to comply, your resourcing and the experience of your key personnel, and that a registration can be approved with conditions, refused, suspended or cancelled. Registrations have to be renewed. AUSTRAC also expects to hear about changes, such as new countries you deal in or new businesses that help you provide the service. Your platform should make those changes easy to spot, so nobody switches on a corridor or a partner without compliance knowing.
Australia is also part-way through its AML/CTF reforms. AUSTRAC's About the reforms page and its transitional rules set out what changes and when. For a founder, the practical point is that report formats and customer due diligence steps will keep changing after launch. Your platform should take those changes as configuration and releases, without forcing you to rebuild your processes.
What must be live on day one: onboarding, screening, reporting
Onboarding. AUSTRAC's customer due diligence guidance expects you to know who your customer is and to keep evidence of how you checked. On RemitSo, customers verify inside their first transfer, through e-KYC with a connected identity provider (ID document, selfie and live face) or by uploading documents for manual review. Evidence is kept with every result, and a reviewer can overrule a check, with the reason kept on the record.
Screening. Every sender, recipient and staff member is screened against eight sanctions lists, including Australia's DFAT list, kept up to date. Everyone is re-screened when the lists change. A possible match holds the transfer until an officer on your team rules on it.
Monitoring. You build your own rules from 47 ready-made risk indicators, and set AML rules per currency, such as AUD, narrowed by sending and payout country. Clean transfers flow on and the rest wait for a person.
Reporting. AUSTRAC's reporting page covers international funds transfer instructions (IFTIs), threshold transaction reports and suspicious matter reports. AUSTRAC describes two IFTI report types, so confirm with your adviser which applies to you. Whichever applies, the report should be built from your own transfer records and checked for completeness. Ask us which AUSTRAC report formats are available for your launch. Your team reviews and lodges every report. Suspicious matters are your compliance officer's call.
Records. AUSTRAC's record keeping guidance sets out what you keep and for how long. RemitSo gives you clear audit trails, user access logs and exportable compliance reports from the first transfer.
Bank and payout partner integration
Your bank and your payout partners will run their own checks on you, and they will ask how your controls work. Two answers help.
- You hold the contracts. On RemitSo you can use a pre-vetted network, bring your own payment and payout partners, or both. Bank transfer, mobile wallets, cash pickup and local clearing are supported.
- Money moves only when the record says it should. Money coming in is matched to what the customer declared. If the amount doesn't match, the money doesn't move. Once a payout is approved, nobody can change it, so nobody can redirect it.
Before launch, switch every partner from test to live credentials and send one real low-value transfer through each route. A sandbox that worked last week doesn't prove the live connection works today.
Corridors and limits configuration
A corridor is a currency, a destination country and the payout methods you offer there. Your corridors should match what you told AUSTRAC, and a new one should get compliance sign-off before it is switched on. On RemitSo, opening a corridor is a settings job, not a software project.
Limits are where your AML program meets the customer. On RemitSo you set "up to" amounts per transaction and over a day, week, month, 90 days or a year, per currency and corridor. Each tier names the documents the customer must provide, and above the top tier an officer has to raise the limit. Fees and rates are set per corridor, and every change records who made it and what it was before.
Your environment and your books
Each RemitSo operator runs its own instance in its own AWS account, in the AWS region it chooses. AWS bills the operator directly, and nothing is shared with another operator. When AUSTRAC, an auditor or a bank partner asks where your records live, you can answer exactly. You can also hand auditors the software bill of materials and hosting diagram. RemitSo is ISO 27001:2022 certified.
Every payment, payout and refund is booked automatically. Entries are never edited: a mistake is reversed, and both entries stay visible.
On timing: your registration follows AUSTRAC's own process and timetable, so plan the platform work around it, not the other way round.
A lesson from Australian launches
Test identity checks end to end, and test again after every change. A customer verified at the identity provider should show as verified in your own system. Check that it does at launch and after every change to your document settings, so the provider's results and your own records never drift apart.
Checklist: rule area and what the platform should evidence
| Rule area | What the platform should be able to evidence |
|---|---|
| Registration category | Your structure (independent dealer, network or affiliate) reflected in how activity is separated |
| Registration details | Your corridors and partners, with changes visible to compliance before they go live |
| Customer due diligence | Collected documents, verification results, reviewer decisions and reasons |
| Sanctions | Lists screened, when they were loaded, who was screened, and each ruling |
| Monitoring and limits | The rule or limit that held each transfer, the reviewer and the outcome |
| IFTI reporting | The regulator file, built from your transfers, with a completeness check |
| Suspicious matters | Review trail and decisions with reasons, with access limited to the right people |
| Partners and money movement | Your partner contracts, payments matched to declarations, payouts locked once approved |
| Corridors | Each corridor switched on with sign-off, and every rate, fee and limit change logged |
| Records and data location | Audit trails, user access logs, exportable reports, your own AWS account and region |
Frequently asked questions
Who is a remitter in Australia?
AUSTRAC describes a remittance service provider as anyone who accepts instructions from customers to transfer money or property to a recipient. It registers independent remittance dealers, remittance network providers and their affiliates.
Does RemitSo register us with AUSTRAC?
No. Enrolment, registration, your AML/CTF program and lodging reports stay with your business. RemitSo gives you the platform that runs your controls and keeps the evidence.
Do we need to be registered before we launch?
Yes. AUSTRAC says it is against the law to provide remittance services in Australia without being registered, so plan your launch around AUSTRAC's own process and timetable.
Can we use our own bank and payout partners?
Yes. You hold the contracts, and RemitSo connects them. You can also use our pre-vetted network, or both.
Where is our customer data held?
In your own instance, in your own AWS account, in the AWS region you choose. AWS bills you directly, and nothing is shared with another operator.
For more, see our AUSTRAC compliance guide for MTOs, RemitSo for Australian operators and our KYC, AML and sanctions tools. Book a demo to see your own corridors set up in the admin panel.
Rules change, and AUSTRAC's own pages are the authority. Treat this as a guide to launch readiness for your platform, not as legal advice. Check with your compliance adviser.